Research retreat 2016

How do waterways map the future against the past? How do we apprehend the past, to plan for the future? Watermark@Narmbool brought science and art together to track the dynamic changes in conditions around Ballarat’s waterways, shaped and shared between humans and non-humans, across inter-related ecological and cultural landscapes.

The paper discusses contemporary explorations of human/animal relations with particular reference to animal extinctions in Australia, in and through performance. Campbell compares two recent works performed in Melbourne, I, Animal, a site-specific work that uses new media and participatory techniques, and a more traditional play, They Saw a Thylacine, that is performed in a theatre. The paper traces how both performances explore the socially constructed hierarchies of power that exist between human and non-human animals. It posits that human constructions of gender, class and race play a powerful role in determining which human and non-human animals survive and thrive, and which do not.